Ingram Micro Expands, Reopens East Coast Facility

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Ingram Micro has expanded and reopened its East Coast Solution Center, based here. The facility, one of two in the United States, gives Ingram Micro solution providers access to space for hands-on and remote demonstrations, product trainings and other education efforts.

The East Coast facility has been expanded with a 1,000-square-foot build-out featuring a new demonstration area and conference space. The company says that the addition has enlarged the facility by nearly 30 percent.

Ingram said it expects traffic in the facility to increase by 20 percent to 30 percent year-over-year as a result of the expansion.

"Our East and West Coast Solution Centers facilitated $2 million worth of closed sales and another $7 million in the pipeline last year, which is a tremendous benefit and incentive to participating IT manufacturers and our solution provider partners," said Anne Wilcox, Ingram Micro U.S. customer solutions marketing VP. "We've designed the Solution Centers to be interactive and encourage our solution providers to bring their end-user clients into the center to see firsthand what specific technology solutions can do for their company."

The expanded facility is said to feature more than 100 suppliers across multiple market categories, and it has four full-time engineers on hand.

This and the Santa Ana, Calif.-based West Coast Solution Center are both intended as sales tools for its partners. They are available for use at no charge to the company's solution providers in the United States and Canada, so that the partners can preview and test new technologies before recommending them to clients.